Understanding Peer Review and Feedback

A Crucial Critique Skill for Authors

Oftentimes when someone joins a critique group, it’s not because they’re in dire need of a free proofreader. They are looking to learn if their writing is any good, as Kiffer Brown says “Does it have a beat? Can you dance to it?”

If you’d like to start your self-editing journey first, you can start here! Plus we have a secret solution to really get the feedback you need as an author! Read on to the end to learn what it is!

While a work can be written in such a way that the errors make it unclear what the author wants to communicate. So, let’s get started.

Ikebana is the Japanese art of arranging flowers. It can have more to do with writing than you would expect!

What are the Guidelines for Critique?

While every writing group will have extraordinarily varied suggestions for offering feedback, they often have a few golden rules:

• Stay positive. We are critiquing, not criticizing.
• Remember that suggestions should enhance the story through the author’s voice, rather than stating a variant of “this is how I would write it.”
• We critique the work rather than the author. Look at what in the writing doesn’t work for you and address that.

Let’s talk about each of those suggestions in greater detail.

Staying Positive

Not quite what we mean…

No one wants to be in the group where people simply say “it was good, I liked it.” That’s not what we mean by positivity.

The reason this rule is so common is that almost everyone who has ever submitted to a writing group has had at least one person thoroughly eviscerate a piece, calling it offensive, a waste of time, and of completely zero worth. This kind of feedback is about as helpful as “it was good I liked it,” because it doesn’t actually tell the author anything about the work.

This guy isn’t getting actionable feedback!

The best critiques often focus on direct observations or questions regarding the work. Pointing out contradictions and plot holes, or saying when a line rings true and why it rings true. For example, if your character is a member of the Canadian Royal Mounted Police, but doesn’t know how to ride a horse, there might be some questions as to why that is. Basics in Non-Violent Communication can really help get started in giving observational feedback (and hearing critique generally). You can read more about that here. For a less intensive and more focused look at just critique (as opposed to overall lifestyle), you can see this article by author and professor Brenda Miller here.

In the end, the best critiques follow through and explain why the reader had the reaction to the text that they did.

“Well, this is how I’d write it”

Hopefully your critiques aren’t overwhelming the author

Hopefully your critiques aren’t overwhelming the author

Unless the reader is a co-author on the work in question, this statement is probably not geared toward helping the author’s voice come through.

When writing my first book at around age ten, I tentatively showed it to my father. He added quite a bit to the first chapter, which focused on a tornado coming and whisking the main character away to a magical world where animals talked. Every place where he made a change stood out like someone had attempted to jam two different polaroids together with the hope no one would notice. –David

Again, a focus on questions and observations can often help the author come up with the solution on their own.

For example: “I noticed that there wasn’t a lot of setting description in this scene. Would there be a way to describe where the characters are having their conversation, both to add to the atmosphere of the story and to offer some beats that break up the dialogue?”

This will let the author make the change instead of adding a new POV of the main character’s mother doing dishes and listening to smooth jazz in the background.

We critique the Work, not the Author

At this point, it seems clear that the focus is on the text. A character does things, and the author simply records them. However, while it’s always good to give the people critiquing work feedback, this is a crucial place to offer suggestions to the author.

Remember that, as the author, people are not giving feedback as an attempt to sabotage the story or to make it worse. While all feedback isn’t useful, it is given with the intention of helping, and hearing it as something intended to help often makes listening to a critique easier.

As such, here are a couple tips when receiving critique on your work.

• Listen. Interrupting or arguing with the person giving you feedback means you have less time to receive a critique.
• Remember that the work is yours. No one can force you to change your work, so there’s no need to quibble about what a reader sees as a must-have change that you won’t implement.
• Ask questions. As you hear your critique, track places where you don’t understand where the reader is coming from or if you’re not sure you understand the motivation behind what they’re saying.
• Say thank you. The best critiques are to improve your work, not review or judge it, and the reader’s work should be appreciated.

Not sure how to get started on a group? Check out this article here to learn the ins and outs of forming a critique group!

The Secret to get the Most out of your Critiques!

Are you ready for this? The best thing you can do to guide the critique you receive is…

Include specific questions and instructions for what you would like for your readers.

The Number 1 request I get as an editor is to “Tear my work apart.” This guidance is about as helpful for an editor as “It was good” is helpful to a writer. – David

By the time work is being submitted for critique, writers will hopefully have a good understanding of their own weaknesses. Setting, plot, and dialogue are common areas of focus. If you’re just getting started and not sure what to ask for, that’s alright! As you receive feedback, be sure to write down common feedback suggestions, like too many movie references that distract from the flow of the story, or not enough Star Trek references in your blogpost.

We don’t recommend sacrificing all your creative energy at once to finish your work. Cirroc Lofton and Meg Foster as Jake Sisko and Onaya in the Deep Space 9 episode Muse

Regardless of what your weaknesses might be, no editor is a mind reader. Many will be able to help, but the only way to guarantee you receive feedback on the craft elements you are most concerned for is to ask for it directly. Using a service like an MOV can be a great start to begin orienting your work to get the nitty gritty feedback of a Line Edit from a group before you commit to a professional Line Edit.

Read Responsibly

With that, you’re ready to go off and take a more active role in your writing community. We believe in you and know that you’ll do great!